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School official offers to launch investigation into Taraji P. Henson's racial profiling complaints

By:
WENN.com
Mar 26, 2015

An official at the University of Southern California (USC) has reached out to actress Taraji P. Henson and offered to launch an investigation into allegations her son was racially profiled by police during a visit to the school. The Hustle & Flow star recently revealed she decided to transfer her 20-year-old son Marcel to the historically black Howard University in Washington, D.C. instead of USC after claiming he was treated unfairly in two separate incidents with cops in California.
She told Uptown magazine, "My child has been racially profiled. He was in Glendale, California and did exactly everything the cops told him to do, including letting them illegally search his car. It was bogus because they didn't give him the ticket for what he was pulled over for.
"Then he's at University of Southern California, the school that I was going to transfer him to, when police stopped him for having his hands in his pockets... So guess where he's going? Howard University. I'm not paying $50,000 so I can't sleep at night wondering, 'Is this the night my son is getting racially profiled on campus?'"
Now John Thomas, the executive director of USC's Department of Public Safety, has issued a statement in response to Henson's claims, revealing he was "deeply disturbed" when he read news reports about "a prospective student who felt profiled on or near campus because of his race".
He writes, "We encourage reporting of allegations of bias and I hope for the opportunity to have a conversation with the young man and his mother.
"I would like to look into this matter further and better understand who was involved and what took place. As someone who personally experienced racial profiling as a teenager, I have a stake in learning more about this incident and doing all I can to reach a just resolution.
"It is not clear to me which police departments were involved. Any allegation of bias or unequal treatment by university officers would trigger an investigation that I would supervise along with the university's Office of Equity and Diversity. It is my expectation and that of the university that our department uphold the highest standards of constitutional policing, affording equal rights and respect to all persons."
Henson has yet to comment on Thomas' statement.

Bill Cosby has denied allegations by former model Janice Dickinson that he sexually abused her in the 1980s.
The TV personality alleged during a chat with U.S. news show Entertainment Tonight on Tuesday (18Nov14) that Cosby raped her while she slept following their dinner meeting in California in 1982. Dickinson reportedly wrote about the incident in the first draft of her 2002 autobiography but claims Cosby's lawyers pressured publishers at HarperCollins to remove the details.
The funnyman's lawyer John P. Schmitt had previously said they would not "dignify these allegations with any comment", but his attorney Marty Singer has now issued a statement denying Dickinson's allegations.
Singer writes, "Janice Dickinson's story accusing Bill Cosby of rape is a complete lie. She did an interview with the New York Observer in September 2002 entitled Interview with the Vamp completely contradicting her story. She claimed that because 'she didn't want to sleep with him (Cosby), he blew her off.' "You can confirm with Harper Collins that she never claimed that Mr Cosby raped her, that no attorney representing Bill Cosby tried to kill the story (since there was no such story) and no one tried to prevent anything she wanted to say about Bill Cosby in her book. "The only story she gave 12 years ago in her autobiography as well as her interview with the media was that she refused to sleep with Mr Cosby and he blew her off... There is documentary proof that Janice Dickinson is fabricating and lying about Bill Cosby."
The ex-model is the third woman to come forward with a sexual assault allegation against Cosby after comedian Hannibal Buress called him a "rapist" during a show in October (14).
Cosby has faced multiple accusations of sexual assault in the past and settled a lawsuit in 2006. He has never been charged over the allegations.

Former model-turned-TV personality Janice Dickinson has become the fourth woman to accuse comedian Bill Cosby of sexual assault.
In an exclusive new interview with U.S. news show Entertainment Tonight, Dickinson details an alleged encounter with Cosby in 1982, when he offered to help her with a planned singing career after she left rehab. She recalls she was holidaying in Bali when Cosby invited her to Lake Tahoe, California, where he was performing, so they could discuss her career and a possible role on his hit comedy The Cosby Show.
The former catwalk star claims he offered her red wine and a pill when she complained of stomach pains over dinner.
She recalls, "The next morning I woke up, and I wasn't wearing my pajamas, and I remember before I passed out that I had been sexually assaulted by this man. Before I woke up in the morning, the last thing I remember was Bill Cosby in a patchwork robe, dropping his robe and getting on top of me. And I remember a lot of pain. The next morning I remember waking up with my pajamas off and there was semen in between my legs."
Dickinson reveals she wrote about the assault in the first draft of her 2002 autobiography No Lifeguard on Duty: The Accidental Life of the World's First Supermodel, but claims Cosby and his lawyers pressured publishers at HarperCollins to remove the details.
She tells ET, "I'm doing this because it's the right thing to do, and it happened to me, and this is the true story. I believe all the other women... I didn't have counsel and I was afraid of the consequences. I was afraid of being labeled a whore or a slut and trying to sleep my way to the top of a career that never took place." Dickinson admits she has never confronted Cosby over the alleged incident, but she wouldn't hold back if she met him again today.
She rages, "(I'd say) 'How dare you. Go f**k yourself. How dare you take advantage of me. And I hope you rot'."
The ex-model is the third woman to come forward with a sexual assault accusation against Cosby after comedian Hannibal Buress called the veteran entertainer a "rapist" during a stand-up show in October (14).
Publicist Joan Tarshis came forward with her own allegations against the comic on Monday (17Nov14), claiming he assaulted her on two occasions in 1969 after she drank a vodka and beer cocktail, which Cosby called a redeye. Like Dickinson, she claims she was unconscious during the alleged assault.
Another reported victim, Barbara Bowman, wrote a piece for the Washington Post earlier this month detailing her alleged assault at the hands of Cosby in 1985, when she was 17. She wrote, "In one case, I blacked out after having dinner and one glass of wine at his New York City brownstone, where he had offered to mentor me and discuss the entertainment industry. When I came to, I was in my panties and a man's T-shirt, and Cosby was looming over me. I’m certain now that he drugged and raped me. But as a teenager, I tried to convince myself I had imagined it."
Bowman was one of 13 women asked to testify against the comedian when a woman named Andrea Constand filed a suit against Cosby in 2004. The case was eventually settled out of court.
Cosby has refused to comment on the latest allegations, but his lawyer, John P. Schmitt, issued a statement on Sunday (16Nov14), which read: "Over the last several weeks, decade-old, discredited allegations against Mr. Cosby have resurfaced. The fact they are being repeated does not make them true. Mr. Cosby does not intend to dignify these allegations with any comment."
Cosby has never been charged with sexual assault.

A new movie about a Spanish man's quest to meet John Lennon has been selected as Spain's official entry for next year's (15) Best Foreign Film Oscar. Director David Trueba's Vivir es Facil con los Ojos Cerrados (Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed) chronicles an English-language teacher's obsession with the late Beatles star.
The movie's title is a lyric from the Fab Four's Strawberry Fields Forever, which Lennon began writing in Almeria, Spain.
The Trueba family isn't new to Oscars glory - David's brother Fernando won gold in the Best Foreign Film category in 1994 for Belle Epoque.
Vivir es Facil con los Ojos Cerrados faces stiff opposition for a nomination in January (15) - Venezuela's Simon Bolivar biopic El Libertador - the most expensive film made in the nation - and Croatia's Cowboys, which won the Audience Award at the country's recent Pula Film Festival, are among the early favourites, alongside Mexico's Cantinflas and Turkey's Winter Sleep.

Songwriter and instrumentalist Johnny Rotella has died, aged 93. The musician's son, John Rotella, confirmed his father passed away peacefully in his sleep in Van Nuys, California on 11 September (14), just days before his 94th birthday.
A statement from Kathy Spanberger, head of music publishing company Peermusic, reads, "He was not only a gifted songwriter but also a renowned musician and raconteur. I will miss the lunches... I had with Johnny because we got to sit back and listen to the wonderful stories of the days he worked with the greats in our business, including Sinatra, Goodman and Glenn Miller."
While growing up in New Jersey, Rotella played clarinet and saxophone in an array of bands throughout his teens, and after military service in World War Two, he relocated to California, began work as a studio woodwind player and became established on the music scene.
Rotella wrote the anthem Nothing But the Best for Frank Sinatra and recorded with Neil Diamond, Frank Zappa and Steely Dan.
He was a sought after session musician, a band regular on The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour variety show in the 1970s, and he wrote more than 200 songs, performed by the likes of Tony Bennett, Dean Martin and Doris Day.

Splash News
Thunderstorms couldn't keep Kings Of Leon from making their live comeback at the Made in America festival in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Sunday night (31Aug14).
Fans attending Jay Z's annual Labor Day weekend event feared they'd have to miss out on sets by Tiesto and Kings of Leon after organizers halted proceedings on Sunday evening and evacuated the Benjamin Franklin Parkway festival site as extreme weather rolled in. But after an hour-long pause, the gates re-opened and the event continued.
Kings of Leon drummer Nathan Followill, who broke his ribs in a tour bus crash at the beginning of August (14), was grateful - but sore after the show. He took to Twitter.com and wrote, "Thank you Philly for taking my mind off of the pain. I will be hurting tonight &amp; tomorrow but it was worth it. Thanks for sticking around."
The rocker later added, "Almost home &amp; I can't cry myself 2 sleep fast enough. Thank heavens for 2 days off before the next show. Fractured ribs are no joke? I ache."
The band scrapped a series of dates to allow Followill time to recover from his crash injuries. Meanwhile, the first Made in America festival in Los Angeles went off without many hitches with John Mayer, DJ Steve Aoki and Kanye West, who headlined Saturday's (30Aug14) festivities in Philadelphia, closing out the event on Sunday night.
Seven people were arrested at the Los Angeles event on Sunday and there were four felony arrests, including one for battery. Another 23 people were given alcohol citations, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Twenty nine people were arrested at the festival on Saturday.

"My dad is 100 per cent Greek; he turned 81 and he barely has a wrinkle. And neither did my grandmother, who was 95 when she died. But it's also just water, drinking a lot of water, using really nice good products for your face... Getting proper sleep is always important." Jennifer Aniston credits her genes and good skincare for her youthful looks at the age of 45.

Horror film director/writer John Fasano has died, aged 52. Fasano passed away in his sleep on Saturday night (19Jul14).
The filmmaker was best known for films like Darkness Falls and The Hunchback, which earned him a Writers Guild Award nomination in 1996.
He also penned the script for the TV series Woke Up Dead, Tom Selleck's TV movie Jesse Stone: Stone Cold, Universal Soldier: The Return, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Another 48 Hours, starring Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte.
Fasano is survived by his wife and their two children.

The reunited The Babys have ruled out a get together with co-founder Michael Corby, because his old bandmates insist he still hasn't forgiven them for kicking him out of the band. Guitarist Wally Stocker and drummer Tony Brock reformed the Everytime I Think of You group last year (13) with the blessing of former bandmates John Waite and Jonathan Cain, but they haven't heard from guitarist/keyboard player Corby - and don't expect to.
Brock tells WENN, "Corby's been very bitter because we unfortunately had to let him go a couple of years before we split up. He's never forgotten it.
"He's so bitter inside about it. He wakes up and goes to sleep bitter."
Singer Waite, who has been replaced by Johnny Bisaha in the new line-up, politely declined Brock's invite to be part of the reunion, but the drummer feels sure Cain, who left The Babys in 1980 to join Journey, is interested in coming back.
Brock adds, "When we first started talking about a reunion, I called Jonathan and he wanted to write with us in between tours with Journey. He wanted to sit in and then maybe come and work on the album but the schedules didn't work out. But he does want to do something."
The Babys' new album I'll Have Some of That is the group's first in three decades.

The Rolling Stones served up a special treat for fans in Rome, Italy on Sunday (22Jun14) when they were joined onstage by John Mayer. The Your Body is a Wonderland singer, who had just completed the European leg of his tour in the Netherlands on Friday (20Jun14), was invited to jam with Sir Mick Jagger and his bandmates on the song Respectable as the group's 14 On Fire trek touched down at the Circus Maximus venue.
Mayer later took to his Instagram.com page to share a photo of himself and Jagger performing together, writing, "What a way to end a tour. Thanks to the Stones for sharing their stage and their crowd with me. I'm going to sleep, can't imagine what else there is to dream about..."
It's not the first time Mayer has hit the stage with the Stones - he teamed up with the British rock icons to belt out the same track at their 50th anniversary show in New Jersey in December, 2012.
Fans in Rome were also treated to a rendition of the Stones' Streets of Love tune, which they have not performed since 2007.